With no satisfactory conclusion reached for the Devon property competition in the UK by the end of 2008, a number of similar competitions and raffles were cancelled or postponed at the end of the year. At the same time, many organisers have continued to accept entries in their own competitions, while others have changed the conditions for players to become eligible to win a prize.

Given the initial success of the Devon property competition, a number of new ‘win a house’ competitions quickly emerged, many of which were structured in a similar way. Players were asked to answer questions correctly before buying a ticket. While some websites did not offer feedback to players, others were designed to stop them from buying a ticket until they had answered the question correctly.

However, over two and a half months after postponing the Oldborough Retreat competition in mid-October, according to their blog the organisers Brian and Wendy Wilshaw are still in dialogue with the Gambling Commission to convince them to consider it as a prize competition, rather than an illegal lottery.

This setback prompted a number of organisers to review the structure of their own competitions, such as Win the Cheltenham House, which was re-launched as a ‘Spot the Frisbee’ competition at the end of December.

Suspended pending clarification from the UK Gambling Commission

A number of other organisers have also written to the Gambling Commission, in the hope of resolving any concerns surrounding the treatment of their own house competition. In some cases, they have suspended their competition as they await clarification.

According to the notice on their homepage, the organisers of the Win Fellows Hall property competition opted to refrain from marketing their site until they have confirmed it meets the requirements of the Gambling Commission. However, they are still receiving entries by Cheque or Bank Transfer to their solicitor’s account. The competition requires players to answer a multiple choice question and buy a £25 ticket to enter. It features a six-bedroom contemporary house based in Stockton (UK) as a top prize.

The Win a Development competition, which offered four Devon apartments as a top prize for a £50 ticket, was cancelled in its current format with a view to being re-launched in early 2009. According to the comment on the site, “Unfortunately this competition along with many others has had to be put on hold while the gaming commission decides if it is classed as a lottery or not. As we are unable to continue with the competition in its current format we will be refunding all monies that have been spent on tickets so far. We intend to continue with the competition in a new format of a “Reverse Auction” or “Spot the Ball” in the near future and envisage a new end date of April 09. […] (Cliff Rawlinson, winadevelopment.com)”.

Postponed due to technical difficulties

A number of organisers encountered technical difficulties related with accepting payments online or setting up the website, leading them to postpone their property competition for the time being.

Graeme and Debi Sargent postponed their competition to win their house in Southampton (UK) on Nice House no Mortgage in early December 2008. According to the statement on the site, the couple encountered technical issues related with accepting payments online. In order to ensure a fair and satisfactory conclusion of the competition, the organisers opted to suspend the competition until the issue has been resolved with the payment provider.

According to the statement published on the site, the Win my Property competition has been delayed as the website is still being finalised. The ‘win a house’ competition will feature a five-bedroom furnished home (called “Lyndon House”) together with two Land Rover cars. Players will be expected to estimate the distance between Stafford and Birmingham correctly to the nearest mile and buy a £25 ticket to enter. 

Have my Home, the competition giving away a £660,000 six-bedroom property in West Kirby (UK), has been temporarily suspended due to a technical problem with the entry system, according to a comment on the website. A total of 425 tickets have been sold so far for the competition, which requires players to answer a question and buy a £25 ticket to enter.

Canceled due to legal uncertainties

Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty and potential costs involved with changing the terms of entry, some property competitions were cancelled altogether in recent weeks.

According to the latest statement on their homepage, the organisers of the £15 Shropshire House Competition have decided to cancel it in its current form: “We have received correspondence today from the Gambling Commission advising us that our competition must stop with immediate effect and so we have no choice but to close the site. […] (Nick and Liz, shropshirehouse.co.uk)”.

After her efforts to sell it in the normal manner were not successful, Suzanne Ravelle launched a raffle in September 2008 to give away her home in the Isle of Wight. After receiving nearly 700 entries and running a mini-draw giving away £1,000 to a player in October, the Raffle my Bricks raffle was cancelled at the end of 2008. Players were required to answer three multiple choice questions and pay £25 to enter. According to the comment on the site, Suzanne intends to put the house back on the market to be sold normally at the start of 2009.

Antony Provan, organiser of the Win a House and Car property competition, also cancelled it in December, displaying a copy of the response he received from the Gambling Commission on the homepage. The competition also required players to answer three multiple choice questions and buy a ticket to enter. 

Win a Devon Manor featured a six-bedroom house valued at £695,000 based in North Devon (UK). The competition was halted following correspondence with the Gambling Commission. According to the statement on the site: “It is with much regret that we have to inform you that the Gambling Commission has now made a decision that all on-line competitions such as winadevonmanor.co.uk fall outside the law.

The matter is now beyond our control, and the decision means that we are unable to proceed with the competition in any way. We cannot even arrange a draw for one of you to win a cash prize of the monies already collected.” Players were required to answer a question and buy at ticket for £20 to enter.

With continued uncertainty surrounding some prize competitions and new ones appearing or closing on a regular basis, the situation can evolve relatively quickly. At this stage, a number of organisers are still awaiting further guidance from the Gambling Commission. Many are also hoping for clarification on the status of the Oldborough Retreat Devon property competition before deciding their next steps.

At the same time, a number of other ‘win a house’ competitions are still being actively run online. Given the high degree of interest in winning a property online, this uncertainty may also lead to new types of property competitions and raffles being launched in the coming months.

Are you aware of any other property competitions, raffles or sweepstakes that were recently suspended or postponed, or that have been re-launched again? Have you come across any new innovative property competitions that have sought to address these issues more effectively?

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Re: Further property competitions cancelled following the Devon house competition setback

This is definitely a case of everyone jumping on the bandwagon without doing any proper research... All these cancelled competitions are the result of people thinking they could just imitate the Devon house raffle, without checking first if it was legal! Still, I'm sure the more recent competitions have been checked a bit more carefully now

Star_comper , 10 Feb 2009

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Re: Further property competitions cancelled following the Devon house competition setback

@ Star_comper

The second half of 2008 witnessed a rush of new house raffles, with new ones announced every month. There is no doubt that the initial success of the Devon property competition made it seem a very attractive proposition to people thinking of doing the same thing themselves.

As you suggest, this may have led a few to imitate the structure used in the Oldborough Retreat competition without carrying out their own proper due diligence. After all, few people expected the competition to face legal issues at such a late stage in the process.

Team Win House , 12 Feb 2009

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Re: Further property competitions cancelled following the Devon house competition setback

great article, thanks. I would just like to point out that, although people should have been more careful when devising their competitions, some of the fault must lie with the regulator.

From what I have read their communications with people organising these competitions have not always been consistent, and even contradictory at times...

justme , 08 Mar 2009

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Get legal advice and sort out a payment provider

I am a gambling lawyer based in Manchester and I have been advising on a number of these property competitions. No lawyer will give you a cast iron guarantee that your competition is legal but should be able to help you avoid the pitfalls. The Gambling Act is act fault as it does not define what level of skill is required to avoid a competition being a lottery (which is illegal - 51 weeks imprisonment). One thing is for sure - you must have some people who enter and fail (I advise 15% failure rate and upwards). Also watch out for payment providers - read their conditions as most of them won't touch gambling payments and you could end up with your account frozen. Richard Williams

Richard , 25 Mar 2009

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Clear case of the regulator getting cold feet

The skill element in competitions has become ever more ridiculous over the last years and the authorities accepted that (and still accept in many other areas). Here they did get cold feet and closed the competitions. I think this is unfair to the innovative organisers since regulation is both a matter of the law as well as interpretation; the latter here changed and only because consideration was higher which should be a deciding factor. Richard, what is the name of your firm?

Christian Braun , 04 Apr 2009

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Re: Further property competitions cancelled following the Devon house competition setback

Is there any possibility that the gambling commission will see sense and allow people to apply for a licence to hold a house raffle charge them maybe £200 and stop all this nonsense. After all we do the national lottery we bet on sport why not take a chance to win property

Eamon , 01 May 2009

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Re: Further property competitions cancelled following the Devon house competition setback

@ Eamon,

Interesting idea that seems to be shared by a number of homeowners these days! As a first step, the Gambling Commission's position will hopefully be clarified once we find out the conclusion of the Oldborough Retreat competition, which has been subject to discussions for many months.

It is possible that they may review more generally how they look at win a house raffles or competitions in the UK, however any major change would likely take some time. Who knows, maybe they will also put this idea on the table given the recent interest from the public?

Team Win House , 01 May 2009

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Refunds from Devon raffle

Hi does anyone know what happens to the money when the raffle does not take place I paid £50 for 2 tickets in the Devon raffle for a house not heard anything and can not find email address to contact anyone

me , 08 Jul 2009

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Re: Refunds from Devon raffle

Hello,

I'm not sure which Devon raffle your are referring to - if you entered the Oldborough Retreat Devon property with fishing competition run by Brian and Wendy Wilshaw, the draw finally went ahead after several months of waiting, and a winner was picked.

For further details, visit our closed competition archive:
http://win-house.co.uk/property-competitions/closed/2009/157-win-oldborough-retreat-devon-property-with-fishing.html

If a competition or raffle is actually cancelled for some reason, the terms and conditions should feature a clause to cover this event.

In general, players are refunded their ticket entry fees, however this process can take some time depending on the administrative system they are using, as well as from a payment processing point of view (and whether the payment processing company is authorising the release of funds).

I hope this helps!

Team Win House , 08 Jul 2009

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There is no reason for confusion

It shouldn't matter what prize is being offered, it could be a property or a car. The key factor is making sure the competition follows the legal guidelines and avoids any danger of being regarded as a lottery.

Best of the Best plc is a UK quoted company, and has been successfully awarding luxury cars in competitions for the last eight years plus! (They can be seen at many international airports, including Gatwick and Heathrow.

The promoters of winspanishproperty.com spent over two years researching the rules and regulations before recently launching, and it seems they have followed an identical business model.

The key requirements are that an element of skill is required, and it seems that just asking questions does not always achieve this in the eyes of the Gaming Commission, as they consider that everyone can access the correct answers using the internet. Therefore it would be better to follow their example and use a "spot the ball" concept, which has been around for decades without being viewed as gambling.

The other key issue is to ensure a payment processing system is in place. We use Eurcash, a well established third party payment system, which as well as holding the prize money, also prevents the promoters from having any access to entrants confidential financial details.

Richard Firth , 05 Nov 2009

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